Groups seek to block tough Alabama immigration law

View full sizeParticipants in a protest against Alabama's new law against illegal immigration march through Linn Park, Saturday, June 25, 2011, in Birmingham, Ala. The new law takes effect Sept. 1, 2011, and makes it a crime to knowingly hire illegal immigrants, rent them places to live or give them rides. It also requires schools to determine the immigration status of their students and report it to the state, although children in the country illegally would not be refused enrollment. (The Birmingham News/Mark Almond)

The motion for a preliminary injunction was filed in federal court in Huntsville by the same groups that have already sued over the law, which opponents and supporters say is the toughest of its kind in the nation.

Federal courts have blocked all or parts of similar laws passed in four other states. Alabama's law allows police to detain people they suspect of being illegal immigrants after a traffic stop, requires schools to report the immigration status of students, and makes it illegal to knowingly transport or give shelter to an illegal immigrant.

The motion filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other civil rights groups calls the law blatantly unconstitutional and asks a judge to stop it before it harms Alabama residents.

Meanwhile, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange has filed a motion claiming the original lawsuit by the civil rights groups is vague, repetitive and does not give a legal reason for why the new law should be thrown out. Strange's motion asks U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn to order the plaintiffs to rewrite the original lawsuit and provide a clearer explanation of what's wrong with the law.

Strange's motion challenges one statement in the original lawsuit that compared the new immigration law to "the worst aspects of Alabama's history," referring to the state's segregationist past. Strange's motion calls that language "impertinent and scandalous" and asks that it be removed from the lawsuit.